The Clicks Communicator is a Blackberry for your phone

"You ever find yourself thinking, "I wish my phone had a phone?" Good news, friend. Clicks - the company behind the QWERTY keyboard case for your iPhone - has just the thing: the Clicks Communicator. It's intended as a kind of complement to your smartphone for when you just want to stay in touch without all the other distractions of your device. The Communicator comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, along with its own cellular connection, so you can leave your main phone behind. But that privilege comes at a price: $499, to be exact."

"Let's set aside the fact that the Communicator costs as much as a Pixel 9A and focus on the glorious gadgetness of it all. For starters, the Communicator comes with interchangeable back plates so you can switch up your style. There's also a built-in headphone jack, a physical mute switch, and expandable storage via microSD - all the little things that mainstream phone makers have dropped over the past decade. The keyboard keys are physically larger than what you'll get on the Clicks phone case, and the whole keyboard is touch sensitive so it can act as a trackpad."

"The Communicator is a complete standalone device on its own. It comes with its own 5G data connection and runs Android 16, so you can download any app you want. But the concept behind the Communicator is to limit the device to only your essential apps when you want an escape from your main phone. In that way, it's definitely easier to fit into an Android ecosystem, where you can download Google Messages to sync it with your main device. Clicks isn't trying any Beeper-style tricks to bring iMessage to the Communicator."

Clicks Communicator is a standalone, secondary device priced at $499 that pairs a full physical QWERTY keyboard with its own cellular connection for simplified communication. The device includes interchangeable back plates, a headphone jack, a physical mute switch, and microSD expansion, restoring hardware features mainstream phones have removed. The larger, touch-sensitive keyboard doubles as a trackpad. The Communicator runs Android 16 with a minimalist Niagara-based launcher to limit apps to essentials, supports 5G and third-party apps, and enables Android-friendly syncing via Google Messages while avoiding attempts to enable iMessage.

Read at The Verge